Setting Up for Success: The Kickoff Meeting

Katie GuernseySenior Product Manager - Fullscreen Media

kitelaunch@gmail.com

What is a Kickoff Meeting?● Inspirational● Strategic● Galvanizing

Note: Consulting vs. in-house

Audience Engagement● Set the scene and rules of engagement● Establish your presence● Speak to the various roles in the audience● BRING THE FUN

http://goodkickoffmeetings.com/

Pre-Kick Off Prep1. Assemble the kickoff

team2. Figure out strategic

purpose3. Assess the risks4. Socialize the presentation5. Invite key stakeholders

Project Overview - Personal Paper WriterBrainNoodle, a large search engine company, is launching a new product aimed at college students called Dr. Reeves. Dr. Reeves is an application that will write term papers for any discipline, at any page length, for a monthly subscription.

A customer simply has to write a thesis statement and the application will develop a well-written paper, in a unique style and voice. BrainNoodle will leverage its search technology to drive the thesis research and argument. They will release on a natural language processing platform called Yak Yak.

Data Points

Market Insights

There is an estimated 40 million students enrolled in secondary and college schools

1B High School Papers

1.8B College Papers

Competitive Landscape

Current products are limited to:

● Abridged notes● Contract-to-Hire● Classmate bribes● Fraternity and sorority

libraries

Product Benchmarks15 teachers scored essays in a controlled test.

“How to be a Product Manager”

Business Goals

Product Goals & Principles

Design Principles

High Level Feature Set

Core Functionality Enhancements Add- Ons / Upsells

Thesis Statement Anti-Plagiarism Guarantee

Image, Graph and Chart Package

Page Length Custom Voice Language Package

Citations Writing Style Options

Milestones & Timeline

Timeline

By Amanda Mickela

Project Team Leads1. Project Management2. Product Owner3. Product Design

a. UXb. Visual

4. Data Science & BI5. Engineering

a. Mobileb. Webc. API

Next Steps

Appendix: Another Graph

Appendix: Sample Kickoff Agenda1. Opportunity Overview2. Data Points

a. market insightsb. competitive landscapec. product benchmarks

3. Business Goals4. Product Goals and/or Principles5. Design Principles6. High Level Feature Set7. Milestones and Timeline8. Project Team Leads9. Next Steps

10. Appendices

Now it’s really over. Thanks!